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'Cool' addition to Leominster's Roberge Park (VIDEO)

By Jack Minch, jminch@sentinelandenterprise.com

Updated:
10/30/2013 07:10:29 AM EDT

LEOMINSTER -- Workers poured concrete Monday at the Jonathan Roberge Veterans Memorial Park on Mechanic Street to create two blast walls like the ones used in Iraq to protect military personnel from suicide bombers.

"I'm ecstatic," said Roberge's father, John Roberge. "As of October, it's been three years we were working on the park."

One wall, also known as a T-wall or Bremer wall, will be inscribed with the names of Massachusetts servicemen killed in Iraq, and the other will feature their color photographs, Roberge said.

The 30-foot panels are modeled after a 480-foot wall that encircles a helicopter landing pad for dignitaries in Iraq.

John Roberge, father of Pfc. Jonathan Roberge, who was killed in Iraq in 2009, talks about the second stage of the Jonathan Roberge Memorial Veterans Park on Monday as crews prepare to pour cement for two blast walls like those used in Iraq to protect soldiers.
SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE / JOHN LOVE

The idea to add the walls to the memorial park came to Roberge when a soldier in Iraq sent him a picture of his son Jonathan's name written on the helicopter pad's wall, along with all the other servicemen killed, Roberge said.

"We thought it would be cool -- because a lot of people don't know about it -- to replicate it here," he said.

Volunteers spent more than six hours Sunday building the forms for the walls and putting wiring inside them before the workers from National Concrete and Arsenault Concrete Foundations could pour cement.

The walls are sunk 5 feet into the ground so they won't topple, and they extend 8 feet into the air. Each one is 10 inches thick and 10 feet long.

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"It's awesome," volunteer Mark Matley, the building committee's unofficial photographer, said Monday. "It's been a long time coming, and it's good we're getting something out of the ground so people see it's more than a vision, it's a reality."

Roberge plans to print color pictures, with UV-resistant ink, on ceramic tiles, of the soldiers killed, then cover them with UV-resistant glass.

"Of all the military parks, we're the first ones to do color pictures outside," Roberge said.

Pouring concrete into the models that will be the blast walls is Steve Arsenault, left, owner of Arsenault Concrete and Foundations, and employees Clem Vautour and Norman Gaudet.
SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE / JOHN LOVE

The pictures will be on the north side of the wall to protect them from direct sunlight, and the wall's T-shape can provide some protection from rain.

Roberge and the park's committee are working to get pictures of the 176 Massachusetts soldiers killed in Iraq.

They sent letters to the families about a week ago asking for pictures, rather than relying on military portraits, because some relatives of those who were killed are angry at the military.

"So we left it up to each individual family," Robert said.

Twenty families have sent pictures so far.

The park has gone through revisions while planners adjusted for costs and federal requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The second stage of the Jonathan Roberge Memorial Veterans Park gets under way Monday. In top photo, pouring concrete into the models that will be the blast walls is Steve Arsenault, left, owner of Arsenault Concrete and Foundations, and employees Clem Vautour and Norman Gaudet. SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE photos / JOHN LOVE

Construction has included 2,000 yards of fill for the park, which sits along the Nashua River.

Alan Paquette built a retaining wall to hold back the fill used to level the ground.

Last November, Mike McAllister poured a cement pad 22 inches thick and reinforced with steel for a M60A3 tank that was put in place in February.

Pfc. Jonathan Roberge was a crew member on an Abrams tank but was driving a Humvee when an improvised explosive device killed him and four other soldiers in Mosul, Iraq, in February 2009.

The park bears his name but recognizes all the military personnel from Massachusetts who have been killed in the war.

The centerpiece of the memorial will eventually be a flat granite slab designed by Phil Cote. On one side will be a bronze relief of Jonathan Roberge appearing to walk out of the wall, and on the other side will be pictures of the four soldiers killed with him.

Donations to the park can be made at IC Federal Credit Union, care of the Jonathan Roberge Park.

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